Fallacy Six: "Forced labor" in vocational education and training centers

In the so-called report Thoroughly Reforming Them Towards a Healthy Heart Attitude: China's Political Re-education Campaign in Xinjiang, he claimed that the trainees in the vocational education and training centers had been placed to do "mandatory work" and that the trainees were arranged to work at factories adjacent to the vocational education and training centers. His intentions were to smear them as forced labor, accuse them of violating the human rights of the trainees and to negate the legitimacy of the vocational education and training work in Xinjiang.

In his report Beyond the Camps: Beijing's Long-term Scheme of Coercive Labor, Poverty Alleviation Social Control in Xinjiang, he depicted a so-called detailed procedure as to how the vocational education and training center implemented the "forced labor" in the following order: detainment in the vocational education and training center--compulsory work in the factories on the sites or in adjacent factories--compulsory work at satellite factories in their hometowns (or other factories and plants). In his report, he also listed some cases from the industrial parks of Xinhe County, Aksu Prefecture and claimed that all of the company's workers are said to be from Xinhe County, and the government provides police forces and special instructors so that the factory is run in a "semi-military" style management. The key information he wanted to send was that all the workers were from the vocational education and training centers in Xinhe County, while his information sources were just hearsay. In his report, he didn't give any explanation, illustration or note.

In another report, he quoted Gulzira Auelhan's statement saying that she spent 437 days in 5 different forms of internment. In fact, she is a dishonest and decadent person. In 2013, she was granted a loan of 40,000 yuan from the rural credit cooperatives of Yining County through the policy of "joint guarantee of 5 people". However, when the loan was due, she deliberately defaulted on the loan and has not paid interests so far. Therefore, she was put on the bank blacklist. She once was interviewed by the Globe and Mail. In the interview, she claimed that her ideal was to raise her children well. The truth is she has not given birth to a child at all. She was indifferent to her three step-children after marrying the third husband. She attempted to persuade her step-daughter Kuniduz Tursunjan to pay her debts. Moreover, according to the statements of her two ex-husbands, she committed adultery during their marriage and was morally corrupted.

In fact, the courses in the vocational education and training centers were to help the trainees master practical skills. The finished goods they made were not merchandise. The personal experiences of many trainees can prove it.

Shireli Emerjan, a graduate of vocational education and training center of Moyu County in Hotan Prefecture, said at the press conference on November 27, 2020, "all the special fields of study we had chosen require that we learn theoretical courses first, and then enter the practical training stage. The students who studied food processing didn't sell the cakes they have made, and they usually gave them to other classes to taste. Students who studied sewing skills use some leftover materials to practice, and they didn't make clothes. Students who studied hotel management did make products either because their classroom is a simulated hotel environment. The home decoration works I designed belonged to me, and the school never asked me for them. Some overseas media groundlessly deemed our practical training as forced labor." Tusonnisa Eli, another graduate, has the same feeling. She said: "if I don't put the sewing skills that I have learned into practice, I will never learn the skill of sewing well, and will never be able to make beautiful clothes.We are actively practicing the skills in order to have a good life in the future. How can this become forced labor?"